(The Center Square) – Border Patrol agents near Chicago shot an armed woman Saturday who was part of a group of motorists who attacked the agents with their cars, the Department of Homeland Security said.
“This morning, Border Patrol agents were conducting a routine patrol, near the intersection of 39th Place and S. Kedzie Avenue, when they were attacked and rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars,” DHS said in a news release “The officers exited their trapped vehicle, when a suspect tried to run them over, forcing the officers to fire defensively. This is an evolving situation. FBI is on the scene.”
The incident occurred in the western suburb of Broadview, where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility is located and where clashes between ICE agents and sometimes violent protesters have occurred in recent weeks.
“While conducting routine patrolling in Broadview, in the same area of Chicago that law enforcement were assaulted yesterday, our brave law enforcement officers were rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars this morning,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “Agents were unable to move their vehicle and exited the car. One of the drivers who rammed the law enforcement vehicle was armed with a semi-automatic weapon. Law enforcement was forced to deploy their weapons and fired defensive shots at an armed US citizen who drove herself to the hospital to get care for wounds.”
Two vehicles also were used as weapons against ICE officers on Thursday, DHS said.
The separate incidents happened in suburban Bensenville and Norridge. DHS said that two illegal aliens deliberately tried to ram and injure officers enforcing federal immigration law in the Thursday incidents. The suspects are in custody with removal proceedings pending.
The woman’s identity and condition from Saturday’s attack were not immediately released. DHS said, though, that she had been “named in a CBP intelligence bulletin last week for doxing agents online.
“Just last week, an internal threat intelligence bulletin was circulated about the armed woman for doxing law enforcement officers online,” DHS said.
No law enforcement officers were seriously injured, DHS said.
Saturday’s attack occurred the same day Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he was notified that President Donald Trump plans to federalize 300 hundred members of the Illinois National Guard for public safety measures in Chicago.
“Unfortunately, JB Pritzker’s Chicago Police Department is leaving the shooting scene and refuses to assist us in securing the area. There is a crowd growing and we are deploying special operations to control a growing crowd,” DHS said of the Broadview attack. CPD does not have jurisdiction in Broadview.
